Pathé Foundation / Renzo Piano Building Workshop/Pathé基金会/伦佐•皮亚诺建筑工作室. Image © Michel Denancé

来自专筑编辑大头，许航的报道。工作场所的设计在过去的几十年里经历了一个根本性的转变，百分之七十的现代办公空间已经转变为开放式平面设计。然而，尽管更多的关注点是在工人生产力下降以及员工满意度的降低上，开放式办公空间的改革却没有减速的迹象。开放式办公空间模式的发展不顾自然的职场文化差异，导致了毁灭性的结果，员工被迫进入一个办公室做违背他们自己利益的事。如果我们想提高办公空间的利用率，则我们必须认识到：最终，设计出来的空间首先要以适应个人需求为特定目的，并且在最好的情况下，可以创造出引人注目、反映企业自身精神的空间。

Workplace design has undergone a radical transformation in the last several decades, with approximately seventy percent of today’s modern offices now converted to open plans. However, despite growing concerns over decreases in worker productivity and employee satisfaction, the open office revolution shows no sign of slowing down. The open office model has proliferated without regard for natural differences in workplace culture, leading to disastrous results when employees are forced into an office that works against their own interests. If we are to make offices more effective, we must acknowledge that ultimately, design comes out of adapting individual needs for a specific purpose and at best, can create inviting spaces that reflect a company’s own ethos.

1305 Studio Office/1305 Studio办公室. Image © Shen Photography

开放式设计的理念在建筑上华丽崛起，期望从压迫性墙壁与房间中获得自然光、弹性空间以及自由。许多企业采用开放式办公设计来提高设计理应表现出来的价值，例如透明度、合作、创新，甚至是在执行总裁与员工分享一张桌子中展现出来的公平观念。虽然有那么多的好处，但是仍有许多调查表明了开放式办公设计的缺点。在其中的一个调查中，组织心理学家马修•戴维斯发现：尽管开放式办公培养一种象征性的组织使命（指该组织在社会中所处的地位、起的作用、承担的义务以及扮演的角色），即让员工感受其为更悠闲的、创新的企业的一员，与此同时它们正在损害工人的注意力、生产力、创新性思维以及满意度。另一个调查发现了甚至更为典型性的影响，即在一个单一的房间中随着员工数量增加，相应地员工出勤会有所降低，与此同时，在完全开放式办公室中的影响会比单一的办公室高出62%。

所以，到底为什么开放式办公设计背后尾随的是如此多的批评，调查反馈出来的现象也与其相悖？问题的答案最先以及最重要的莫过于其经济利益。开放式办公设计所声称的利益经常掩盖了他们潜在的功能——将尽可能多的员工塞进尽可能小的空间内来削减房地产成本。当工人因移动设备的普及以及远程工作的能力而花费越来越少的时间在办公室中，公司不愿意将部分钱用在装备办公室上。因此，从老板节省运营成本方面来说，向开放式办公设计的转变很可能是一个极为明智的决定。但是，它也引起疑虑，即如何能使工作真正地在办公环境中完成。

The concept of the open plan had noble beginnings in architecture and promised natural light, flexible space, and freedom from oppressive walls and rooms. Many companies have adopted open office plans in order to promote the values this layout supposedly represents such as transparency, collaboration, innovation, and even egalitarian visions where the CEO shares a desk alongside his employees. But despite all of their supposed benefits, a number of studies have revealed the downsides to open plan offices. In one such study, organizational psychologist Matthew Davis found that “though open offices often fostered a symbolic sense of organizational mission, making employees feel like part of a more laid-back, innovative enterprise, they were damaging to the workers’ attention spans, productivity, creative thinking, and satisfaction.” Another study found even more extreme repercussions of the typology, revealing that as the number of employees working in a single room increased, employee attendance correspondingly decreased with those working in fully open offices out sixty-two percent more than those in single offices. [1]
So why do open plan offices perpetuate in the wake of so much criticism and research-backed evidence against them? The answer first and foremost lies in their economic advantages. The purported benefits of the open plan office often mask their underlying function – to cut down on real estate costs by cramming the maximum number of employees into the minimum amount of space. As workers spend less and less time in the office due to the proliferation of mobile devices and the ability to work remotely, corporations are less willing to spend money on partially filled offices. Therefore, the shift to open plan offices could be a very smart decision on the part of employers in terms of saving on operating costs, but it raises questions about how work actually gets done in the office environment.

Airbnb’s European Operations Hub in Dublin/都柏林Airbnb欧洲操作中心. Image © Ed Reeve

在某些背景下，如果个人能够从社会更多的互动中获益，那么开放式工作场所可能具有一个极为积极性的影响力。有这样一个富有创造性的环境：可以从互动中成长，从同事中学习，开放式设计积极的方面可能甚至超越生产量减少的消极结果。许多企业试图身体力行地展现他们企业的使命并且继续相信开放式设计可以鼓励员工互动。尤其是科技公司，它们经常以其初创时的精神来设计他们的办公室，用一些开放式的弹性设计来适应其快速成长。脸书（facebook）的使命，如马克•扎克伯格所述：让世界变得更为开放。这个精神被反映到他们的办公室设计中，他们新建的由弗兰克•盖里设计的总部想要建立全世界最大的开放式办公空间。谷歌也拥有一个既体现企业个性又适当地迎合年轻员工的办公设计。

In some settings, open workplaces may have a particularly positive impact if individuals can gain from increased social interactions. In creative environments that thrive on interaction and learning from colleagues, the positive aspects of open plans may even outweigh the negative consequences of decreased productivity. Many corporations seek to physically demonstrate their company mission and continue to believe that open layouts encourage employee interaction. Technology companies in particular often design their offices in the spirit of many startups, which have open flexible plans to accommodate rapid growth. Facebook’s mission, as stated by Mark Zuckerberg is “to make the world a more open place” and this ethos is reflected in their office designs, with their new headquarters designed by Frank Gehry expected to house the world’s largest open office. Google also has an office design that embodies their corporate personality and appropriately caters to the demographic of their young employees.

Google Campus Dublin/都柏林谷歌园. Image © Peter Wurmli

开放式办公室中存在的多数怨言，其可能的原因是过去的十年中设计大范围扩充却未考虑个人对工作场所的需求。为响应一篇抨击开放式办公趋势的煽动性文章（据说该趋势的灵感来自谷歌），Kay Sargent写到“任何提及‘谷歌做错了’的标题一定会引起注意”。但是我们不认为是谷歌做错了。相反地，我们认为谷歌找到了适合自身的方法。误解的人正是那些试图将类似谷歌的空间设计及政策运用在他们的组织上而没有了解他们真正需要的是什么的人。在逻辑上，一间在合作与创新中成长的公司相较之一间工作能够完全独立完成的较为传统的公司需要更为复杂的环境。然而，近年与创业相关的巨大成功与魅力甚至令最大的企业去模仿他们的小同行的办公室设计，而不顾它是否符合他们的工作场所文化。

Many of the complaints arising from open offices may be due to the fact that the design has widely proliferated in the last decade with very little consideration to individual workplace needs. In response to an inflammatory article criticizing the open office trend supposedly inspired by Google, Kay Sargent writes “Any headline that says “Google got it wrong” is bound to catch attention. But we don’t think that Google gets it wrong. We think Google gets it right—for Google. The folks who get it wrong are the ones who try to slap Google-like space and policies onto their own organization without understanding what it is that they really need.” A company that thrives on collaboration and creativity would logically have a very different work environment than a more traditional business practice in which work can be completed independently. However, the enormous success and glamour associated with startups in recent years has driven even the largest corporations to mimic office designs of their smaller counterparts, regardless of whether or not it suits their workplace culture.

Pixar Headquarters Atrium/皮克斯总部场馆. Image © Esto/Peter Aaron; Courtesy of Bohlin Cywinski Jackson

有许多方法可以在获取所谓的利益的同时，创造出积极的办公互动、温馨的办公室，甚至可以隐喻公司愿景。比如史蒂夫•乔布斯，他是为皮克斯公司（皮克斯动画工作室）设计能够加强自发性合作的办公室最早的拥护者之一。皮克斯的总部设计于九十年代末，一个仍是小隔间为标准的时代。而皮克斯的总部设计有扩张性的中庭作为建筑的中心枢纽，内有计算机科学家、卡通片制作者和其他人员的办公室。将来自不同部门的员工移到一个单一的建筑中，做这样的决定对乔布斯来说是至关重要的。因为，他认为由中庭空间所引起的邂逅可以激起创新与情感，这样的际遇经常能从开放式办公室中听说。皮克斯总部与现今许多的办公室不同，因为许多办公室都是私人的并且以“U”字型设计环绕于中心的会议区。皮克斯总部先前经历过小隔间的分散环境，因此，他们在新办公室的建设中选择在打造私密办公室的同时，有效地营造了一个合作性的环境。当皮克斯的执行总裁约翰•雷斯特说道：“我从来没有见过一个建筑物可以像它一样促进合作与创新”时，就展现出了这个建筑内在的成功。这个建筑就是一个体现企业精神和加强合作的成功的例子，成功避免了所有开放式办公室的困难。

There are numerous ways to achieve the purported benefits behind open offices in ways that simultaneously create positive workplace interactions, inviting offices, and even act as metaphors for a company’s vision. Steve Jobs, for example, was one of the earliest proponents of designing the offices of Pixar to enhance spontaneous collaboration. Designed in the late nineties when cubicles were still very much the norm, Pixar’s headquarters includes an expansive atrium which acts as a central hub for a building that includes offices for computer scientists, animators, and others. Making the decision to move employees from all different departments into a single building was important to Jobs as he believed that the chance encounters prompted by the atrium space could prompt innovation, a sentiment often heard about the open plan office. The Pixar headquarters differs from many of today’s offices, in that most of the offices are private and arranged in a U-shaped plan around a central meeting area. Pixar had experienced the distracting environment of cubicles in their previous headquarters, and thus had chosen to create private offices for their new building while effectively creating a collaborative environment. CEO John Lasseter declared the inherent success of the building when he stated “…I’ve never seen a building that promoted collaboration and creativity as well as this one.” This building may serve as an example which successfully embodies a corporate ethos and enhances collaboration, all while managing to avoid the difficulties with open offices. [2]

Wieden+Kennedy NY/纽约Wieden+Kennedy. Image © Raymond Adams

创建常见的流通空间刺激甚至迫使工人们在他们去办公桌的路上与他人互动，这是公司试图去加强工作场所文化的另外一种方式。与皮克斯办公空间中庭的设计类似，彭博在曼哈顿的总部设立了一个称之为“联系”的区域，每一位工人和游客都必须通过它来进入其他楼层。另外，电梯不是每层都停的，它使员工走楼梯来经过其他他们可能无法看到的工作场所，促进部门间人员的互动。但是，不同于皮克斯，彭博的办公室使用一个完全开放式的楼层设计，运用玻璃围合的会议室来达到贯穿整个空间的视觉上的连续。赛斯•史蒂文森的一篇文章中提及，彭博的员工惊讶于他们一天中碰上同事的频率，更多的互动使一位员工能够更好地了解公司内发生的所有事情。其次，当彭博投资以及协助创业初期的建立者时，他们发现了将开放设计调整为一个更大规模的成功的方法，其中员工可以跨学科合作，可以很容易地与同事确认即将到来的最后期限。

Creating common circulation spaces that encourage or even force workers to interact on their way to their desks is another means by which companies attempt to enhance workplace culture. Similar to the strategy of the atrium in Pixar’s office, the Bloomberg headquarters in Manhattan establishes an area called “the link” through which every worker and visitor must pass to proceed to the other floors. Additionally, elevators do not stop on every floor, which forces employees to take stairs through parts of the workplace they may not otherwise see and encourage interactions with those in other departments. Unlike Pixar, however, Bloomberg’s offices employ a completely open floor plan with glass conference rooms to create visual continuity across the entire space. Their office design thus acts as a physical metaphor for their corporate goal of creating more transparency in the marketplace. According to an article by Seth Stevenson, the employees at Bloomberg are surprised at how often they bump into their colleagues throughout the day and this increased interaction prompts individuals to gain a better sense of everything taking place at the company. Additionally, as Bloomberg invests in and works with the founders of many startups, they have found success in adapting the open plan to a larger scale thanks to the ways in which it allows people to collaborate across disciplines and easily check in with colleagues about upcoming deadlines.

Square Headquarters/Square总部. Image © Matthew Millman

在这个视频会议和移动通信的时代，其他的工作场所的设计策略包括将许多人日常生活中的场所与活动带入办公室，尽可能鼓励人们在办公室工作而不是在家中。谷歌在他们的办公空间中提供了瑜伽教室和其他娱乐活动，然而，美国square移动支付公司在旧金山的新办公室被设计成类似城市的形态，其中布满了街道与城市广场。宽阔的走廊上为协同工作或者非正式会议而放置了大桌子和餐馆风格的火车座。并且在区域中部有一个咖啡吧吸引整个办公室的人员聚在一起开临时会议。Square公司曾尝试将零售店以及手工艺商人引入他们的办公室，这样更深一步地来模拟城市，它的功能是作为使用该公司移动支付系统这种类型的商业模式的参照物。另外，他们的办公室设计在不同城市之间有所不同，像日本的办公室则用榻榻米房间作为会议场所，并且赋予每一个房间其独特的空间感，用这种方式来适应其特有的工作场所文化。

Other workplace design strategies include bringing places and activities present in many people’s daily lives into the office itself, possibly to encourage people to work in the office rather than at home in an age of online meetings and mobile connectivity. Google offers areas for yoga classes and other recreational activities within their offices, whereas Square’s new San Francisco offices are designed to work like a city, complete with “avenues” and a “town square.” Their wide hallways feature large tables and restaurant style booths for collaborative work or informal meetings, and a coffee bar in the middle functions to draw people from the entire office together for casual meetings. Taking the metaphor of a city a step further, Square has even been experimenting with bringing pop-up stores and artisan merchants into their offices, a feature which references the kinds of businesses that employ the company’s mobile payment system. Additionally, their office design varies across cities, with an office in Japan incorporating tatami rooms for meeting places and giving each office a unique sense of “place” – and thus further adapted to fit a specific workplace culture. [3]

Pandora Media Inc. New York Office/潘多拉传媒公司纽约办公室. Image © Durston Saylor

设计师应为开放式环境设计提供更多的灵活性，更加适应企业的个体文化，而非一排排办公桌那样复制来延续平凡单调的办公室。Gensler国际著名建筑设计、规划与咨询公司2013年的工作场所调查研究表明，“在各行业中，我们发现那些平衡性的工作场所，优先考虑重点与合作的在评判满意、创新、效率和表现上得分较高。”这就能够解释混合型工作空间兴起的原因了。此类工作空间经常利用可移动的家居系统和沙发为员工们提供舒适的环境进行小组会议或者为个人提供专注的工作环境。这就向具有更多空间种类的设计型办公室迈近了一步，但是在许多的案例中，这些混合型设计成为了3种或4种不同的工作空间的公式化运用，仍然未考虑每一个办公室的特殊需求。

Instead of working to perpetuate mundane offices that copy each other with row after row of desks, designers should promote greater flexibility within open plan environments and adapt workplace design to a company’s individual culture. Gensler’s 2013 Workplace Survey reveals “Across industries, we found that balanced workplaces—those prioritizing both focus and collaboration—score higher on measures of satisfaction, innovation, effectiveness, and performance.” This could explain the emerging trend of “hybrid” workspaces which often utilize movable furniture systems and couches that offer comfortable environments for workers to meet in small groups or individuals to retreat for focused work. This is one step towards designing offices that offer a greater variety of spaces, but in too many cases these hybrid designs are simply a formulaic application of three or four different types of work area, which still don’t take into account the specific needs of each office.


真正的混合型办公室应该从企业工作场所的目的入手作整体了解，而非简单的家具系统的安装。拿皮克斯和彭博公司做例子，他们加强员工自发性交流的期望通过建筑上的一些决定得以解决，例如限定独特的流线模式和指定聚集场所在每天的不同时段把办公室的每一个人聚集起来。尤其是，他们没有以一种唯一的方法刺激交流加强透明度来试图实现开放式设计。相反，其中的理念在整个空间中是可见的，并且与企业形象及其独有的工作方法对话。

很长时间以来，办公室设计采用了一个单一的模式。而且，如果现代的工作环境设计想要真正的成功，他们必须适应在日益数字化的时代中工作风格的多样性。例如谷歌的办公室设计就成为了对谷歌独一无二的特定的企业文化的代名词。皮克斯办公室设计寻求创造一个动态的工作场所，这个想法受其产品发展的都市文化启发。这些设计因目的导向策略（以各种各样的空间创造新兴的环境）而有所区别，因此改良了许多千篇一律的制式开放布局。最重要的是，带有目的的设计是避免现代办公空间变成恐怖的地方，将其从中拯救出来的唯一方式。

True hybrid offices should be informed holistically by a company’s workplace goals and go beyond the implementation of simple furniture systems. In the case of Pixar and Bloomberg for example, their desire to increase spontaneous employee interaction was addressed through architectural decisions such as defining unique circulation patterns and designating gathering spaces to bring everyone in the office together at various times throughout the day. These offices in particular do not attempt to implement the open plan as the only way of encouraging communication and transparency, and rather, these ideals are visible throughout the space and speak to corporate identity and unique ways of working.
For too long office designs have adopted a singular model, and if modern work environments are to truly be successful they must adapt to a multitude of working styles present in an increasingly digital age. Office designs such as Google’s become synonymous with a specific corporate culture unique to Google, while Square’s offices seek to create a dynamic workplace inspired by the urban culture in which their products thrive. These designs distinguish themselves through purpose-driven strategies that create engaging environments with varying spaces, thus ameliorating many of the issues stemming from uniform and faceless open plans. Most importantly, the new workplace ideal should not rely on a collection of buzzwords to foster innovation, because ultimately, design with intent is the only way to save the modern workplace from becoming a place of dread.

出处：本文译自www.archdaily.com/，转载请注明出处。